Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

Eureka Entertainment celebrate one of the worst movies of all time with this incredible box set containing the original 1986 Troll, its unintentionally awful “sequel”, and – for the first time on Blu-ray – Best Worst Movie, a tribute to the unexpected success of Troll 2.

Predating J.K. Rowling’s first book by more than ten years, Troll begins with Harry Potter (really) and his family moving into a new apartment. Within minutes, daughter Wendy ends up in the basement where she’s possessed by a troll who starts to transform the apartments and its quirky residents into plants, spawning more trolls and eventually taking over the entire building. Harry Jr is the only person who sees something is wrong with Wendy, and it’s up to him to sort things out. With plenty of good old-fashioned practical special effects, some tremendous comic performances (particularly from Sonny Bono as the sleazy neighbour Mr Dickinson), and very little time spent faffing around, the 82 minute runtime flies by in a whirlwind of insanity.

As fun as Troll is, the main attraction for many with this release is Troll 2. Completely unrelated to its predecessor in every way apart from the name, the film is presented here in its dreadful entirety, warts and all. No amount of upscaling, HD remastering or what have you can change the awful plot, script, acting or editing, but connoisseurs of the arse end of cinema are going to be over the moon with the overall package. Special features for Troll and Troll 2 are identical to those on previous releases (a 50 minute “making of” Troll documentary, and cast and crew audio commentaries on Troll 2), but this release excels itself with Best Worst Movie.

A 2009 feature-length behind the scenes documentary directed by Troll 2 star Michael Stephenson and featuring interviews with most of the cast, this has previously only been available on standard DVD as part of a now out of print 5000-piece limited edition set, so this new release provides an excellent opportunity for anyone who might have missed out last time. As well as the main feature, we’re treated to almost 90 minutes of deleted scenes and additional footage and an 80-minute cast and crew Q&A. There’s also a music video and a couple of standalone interviews, and the initial print run includes a mini booklet filled with archive material, all wrapped up in a fancy sleeve with some awesome reversible artwork.

We all know that Troll 2 is terrible, but that’s exactly why it’s become such a cult classic. If we were reviewing each part of this set individually, Troll gets a 6 or 7, Troll 2 in all honesty can’t get more than a 3 or 4 for the actual film (but it’s a high 8 bordering on a 9 for ridiculous entertainment, if you like that sort of thing), and the inclusion of so many extras in addition to the already-excellent Best Worst Movie puts that somewhere near the top end as well. The folks at Eureka have really done an outstanding job with compiling pretty much every bit of Troll-related content they could get their hands on into an immensely enjoyable package, plenty of which has never been seen on Blu-ray before. Fans of the ridiculous and the downright awful are superbly catered for here, and should look into purchasing this immediately!

Special features: Limited edition slipcase, The Making of Troll (50 mins), audio commentary on Troll 2 with actors George Hardy and Deborah Reed, deleted scenes and interview footage, interview with Troll 2’s Goblin Queen, Deborah Reed, screenwriting Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith, Michael Stephenson and George Hardy (81 mins), “Monsterous” music video, trailers for all three films, reversible sleeve, limited edition collector’s booklet (first print run only)

TROLL: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: JOHN CARL BUECHLER, CLAUDIO FRAGASSO, MICHAEL STEPHENSON / SCREENPLAY: ED NAHA, CLAUDIO FRAGASSO / STARRING: NOAH HATHAWAY, MICHAEL MORIARTY, MICHAEL STEPHENSON, GEORGE HARDY / RELEASE DATE: 8TH OCTOBER

Let’s be honest, what really is there left to say about John Carpenter’s 1978 Halloween? That picture is viewed by many to be one of the greatest horror movies of all-time, often cited as kickstarting the slasher subgenre, and launching the very best franchise in the history of horror. But chances are, you’re already well, well aware of that. So, with Carpenter’s original celebrating its 40th year, let’s take a look at this new release of a truly iconic movie.

To summarise the plot of Halloween in its simplest form – for those of you who have somehow been living under a rock for the past forty years – the film opens with a young Michael Myers killing his sister on Halloween night. Locked up for over a decade, Michael eventually breaks out and returns to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois to stalk and slash his way through the neighbourhood’s teen population. In amongst the action, we have a breakthrough role for Jamie Lee Curtis as “final girl” Laurie Strode and a tour de force performance from Donald Pleasance as Sam Loomis, the longtime doctor of the murderous Myers.

Again, this is no new information, and you’ll likely be full appreciative of just how stunning a movie Halloween is. Hot on the heels of Assault on Precinct 13, John Carpenter began to earn his Master of Horror stripes with Halloween, as he provided a mesmerising example of tension, pacing, masterful musical beats, and less-is-more scares. That means that you’re probably reading this review to see what else this new anniversary release has to offer.

In terms of the bonus material included on this release, if we’re being honest, it’s nothing new. The special features are all pulled from previous Halloween releases, but that’s not to say that they aren’t a whole lot of fun. For starters, the chat track with John Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis is utterly engaging, with these two genre icons looking back at the film that took both of their respective stocks to the next level. Again, The Night She Came Home is another fascinating addition, with this hour-long featurette seeing Curtis make a one-off horror convention appearance.

While these extras and the rest of the additional content are all great for what they are – even if, bar the impressive artcards, they’re nothing original – what’s likely brought you to the dance here is the new 4K Ultra HD transfer of the movie. Longtime Carpenter collaborator Dean Cundey has overseen this transfer of the picture, much like he did with the crisp-as-an-autumnal-leaf transfer for the 35th anniversary edition (which is included here as the standard Blu-ray portion of the release), and again Halloween is taken to a whole other level in 4K Ultra HD. Some classics of yesteryear don’t necessarily benefit from being cleaned up and brought to HD and to 4K, but Halloween certainly doesn’t fall into that class. Instead, this iconic feature is given a new lease of life, with the Ultra HD transfer giving even further appreciation to the simple yet stunningly effective story and camera work put in place by John Carpenter and his team. Carpenter has always been at his best when making less seem like more, and the 4K Ultra HD transfer hammers home this point.

Halloween is and always will be a masterpiece, and now the antics of The Shape on that fateful night have never looked so good. For the purists, the lack of new special features may be a turn off here, but the 4K Ultra HD version of the movie is a total must-see. And for those of you out there who don’t own Halloween, this is a release that totally and utterly deserves a place in your collection.

Special Features: Audio commentary with John Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis / The Night She Came Home featurette / On Location: 25 Years Later featurette / TV version footage / Trailer / TV spots / Radio spots / Five artcards

HALLOWEEN 4K ULTRA HD / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: JOHN CARPENTER / SCREENPLAY: JOHN CARPENTER, DEBRA HILL / STARRING: JAMIE LEE CURTIS, DONALD PLEASANCE, P.J. SOLES, NANCY LOOMIS, NICK CASTLE / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 1ST

Although it’s produced by the History Channel, the Knights Templar action-fest Knightfall has about as much to do with the real-life Knights Templar as “Daddy’s Lil Monster” Harley Quinn has to do with the commedia dell’arte. It’s fast-moving, vaguely entertaining nonsense about how Templar good-guy Landry loses the legendary Holy Grail after the Siege of Acre goes badly wrong, only to discover, fifteen years later, that the Master he trusted has been hiding the Grail all along so now he’s got to track it down before some very bad things happen.

En route we find out that Landry regularly breaks his vow of chastity to enjoy some special cuddling with the Queen of France (whose husband King Philip is not only oblivious to their trysts but also has no idea that his chief advisor is up to some down-and-dirty political machinations of his own), uncovers murderous treason within the Templar’s ranks, gets on the wrong side of Saracen assassins, and befriends a Luke Skywalker-lite farmboy who should never have left his fiancée at home when there are rapist bandits hiding in the woods. There’s lots of brooding, lots of sword fighting, lots of warning people not to go into bad places only to have to rescue them when they go in there anyway, lots of faux political intrigue that isn’t as devious as it wants to be, and several subplots that are vaguely promising but never actually go anywhere. Oh, and a last battle that kind of looks like a snowy version of the climax from Excalibur.

On the plus side, it all looks fairly gorgeous, it moves so fast that you don’t have time to consider how ridiculous it all is, and the performances by the lead actors – especially Tom Cullen as Landry, Padraic Delaney as Gawain and Julian Ovenden as the Sherriff of Nottingham-ish de Nogaret – are mostly very watchable.

On the minus side, Knightfall does something which is quite hard to achieve – it takes one of the most mysterious and charismatic secret societies in history and turns them into a talky ho-hum version of the Knights of the Round Table. On top of that, the endless combat and blood-letting quickly turns a bit dull as well. And in its desperate bid to join the ranks of Vikings and Black Sails with a bit of Game of Thrones, The Borgias and Da Vinci’s Demons thrown in for good measure, it tosses out any semblance of its own original identity and rapidly turns into the television equivalent of medieval tofu – pointless, flavourless, but okay to eat if you swallow it quickly and try to forget you’re eating tofu.

For a series that’s only a slight step-up from Guy Ritchie’s godawful King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, it’s mystifying that a second season has already been greenlit and that Mark Hamill has signed on to join the cast. Maybe his presence combined with a new showrunner will make Knightfall 2.0 more entertaining. We doubt we’re going to be sticking around to find out.

KNIGHTFALL / CERT: 15 / STARRING: TOM CULLEN, JULIAN OVENDEN, PADRAIC DELANEY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The Maid of Might’s third season is finally on home release, and we find ourselves given a very different Supergirl as Season Three opens. Following last year’s heartstring-tearing romance with Mon-El, we find a Kara who is now all business. Kara Danvers is on the backburner, as Kara Zor-El fully throws herself into the superhero game. But as ever, new threats, new questions, and new revelations await just around the corner for the Girl of Steel.

First and foremost, let’s just put it out there: Supergirl is an utter joy to watch. In terms of bringing a comic book character to life, this CW series is a fantastic example of how to do that so well. Never afraid to be fun, loud, and imaginative, Supergirl manages to be pure spectacle whilst similarly retaining a true sense of heart. And there’s certainly plentiful heartfelt beats in this third year. While Kara herself is questioning her place in the world, newcomer Samantha (Odette Annable) soon finds herself undergoing her own personal struggle as the nefarious Worldkiller known as Reign begins to cause all kinds of chaos and carnage in National City. As Samantha becomes BFFs with Kara, Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh), and Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath), she has to rely on her new pals to help her with her ever-expanding problems. But it’s not merely Kara and Samantha who are on their own personal journeys here, for Supergirl again does what Supergirl has done so well previously: it makes each and every one of its core cast feel like a major deal, a real person with their own purpose in the show and not just simply there to fill the narrative or to let the show’s titular heroine take all of the spotlight.

As ever, Melissa Benoist is absolutely note perfect as both Kara Danvers and Kara Zor-El, proving to be vulnerable yet strong, human yet otherworldly, naive yet wise. With familiar faces and newbies all excelling in their respective roles, Benoist’s charming, multi-layered performance is just the tip of the iceberg, with Supergirl proving to again reward both newcomers to the character and those who are more well-versed in Super-lore. And that’s so often one of Supergirl’s greatest traits, that it feels so all-encompassing, be it in the array of different characters on display or in its approach to its audience.

After a slightly rocky start at CBS for its debut year, Supergirl has gone from strength to strength, and Season Three is the most intriguing, engaging, and spectacular season of the series to date. In fact, there’s a strong argument to be made that this most recent season is right up there as one of the best seasons offered up by the Arrowverse, period.

In terms of bonus material, the highlight is likely the She Will Reign! featurette looking at the all-powerful, relentless villain of this year. Other than that, there’s a look at Comic Con 2017 and the Inside the Crossover featurette that’s been included on several other recent Arrowverse releases.

Special Features: Three featurettes / Gag reel / Deleted scenes

SUPERGIRL: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: MELISSA BENOIST, CHYLER LEIGH, ODETTE ANNABLE, MEHCAD BROOKS, JEREMY JORDAN, KATIE MCGRATH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Power Rangers Ninja Steel Volume 2: Survive contains episodes 5-8 of the most recent Power Rangers series. As the name suggests, this time the theme of the show is “ninja”, with all of the characters’ gear revolving around throwing stars.

Power Rangers has often had a goofy slapstick nature to it, but this time it has really been ramped up to the point of surrealism, with most of it happening to the comic relief bullies. Despite containing only four episodes, this collection sees them getting flung into the air with remarkable frequency. The heart of the show is still there though, with characters learning a lesson which help them grow as people, and more signs of the strong friendships within the group being forged. The most noteworthy part of this collection is the introduction of this series’ sixth ranger. The “mystery” surrounding their identity is as predictable as you’d expect, but they have good chemistry with the rest of the group, and they quickly fit into the team.

This time the villainous lair is a gladiatorial arena in the style of an extreme sports-based TV show. The concept is interesting, and it does distinguish it from the vast array of evil empires of past Power Rangers iterations, but the episodes don’t manage to do enough with the concept for it to stand out as much as it could have. Similarly, the villain does seem threatening, but he isn’t given a whole lot to do beyond yelling angrily at his subordinates.

Power Rangers Ninja Steel Volume 2: Survive is tricky to review because there are only four episodes on the disc. Normally a release with this little content and no special features wouldn’t be worth looking into. However, this is a series which will be releasing its content in small offerings frequently rather than full or half season box sets. While there isn’t much to this box set, it is very cheap, and the next release will arrive mere months after this one.

For what it is, Power Rangers Ninja Steel Volume 2: Survive is an acceptable release. It contains the sort of content which can be expected of the franchise delivered in a bite sized helping, and should tide fans over until Volume 3 comes out. The humour is wacky and delightfully over the top, and the action is standard Power Rangers fare. One drawback to these episodes is their production quality. All of the special weapons and morphers the Rangers use are all cheap looking, as if they were made quickly and inexpensively out of plastic… There’s not too much to recommend here for anyone not already invested in the show, but there also isn’t much to lose in checking it out.

POWER RANGERS NINJA STEEL VOLUME 2: SURVIVE / DIRECTORS: VARIOUS/ SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: WILLIAM SHEWFELT, NICO GREETHAM, ZOE ROBINS, PETER ADRIAN SUDARSO, CHRYSTI ANE / CERT: PG / RELEASE DATE: 1st OCTOBER 2018

Russell (Highlander) Mulcahy’s feature debut was an antipodean cult hit in the early eighties, but has largely been ignored since. Now remastered 34 years after its release, it not only stands up against modern releases, but surpasses our original impression.

American TV journalist Beth Winters (Morris) has travelled to a remote outback town in Australia to report on the barbaric kangaroo hunters, but falls foul of a pair of ockers who run the local pet food plant. She goes missing, assumed to have fallen down a well, so her boyfriend arrives to try to make sense of her disappearance. Meanwhile, old timer Jake (Kerr) has dedicated his life to catching a monstrous razorback boar that killed his grandchild several years earlier.

Music video director Mulcahy brings his flamboyant touch to the larger screen as one would expect. This is a lusciously shot picture, with plenty to enjoy. The Australian landscape lending itself perfectly to his lens as he paints the vistas just as Dario Argento tinted Suspiria. There’s more to Razorback, however, than merely ‘Jaws with trotters’. The creature design is wisely kept mostly off-screen, which helps heightening the tension and take the attention away from any design flaws that it may have had.

Umbrella Entertainment’s new remastered Blu-ray release contains more than enough added value to make this an essential purchase, however. Alongside the obligatory audio commentary, there’s a feature-length retrospective ‘making of’, with contributions from many of the key crew and actors, and a brand-new roundtable discussion on the film by four leading Aussie critics. Also included is the ‘VHS cut’, which presents the film as it would have been seen on cassette, complete with tracking marks, copy degradation, and in the good old 4:3 ratio. It’s certainly an item for completists that very few will watch, but nice to have all the same.

Razorback is a movie that was ahead of its time. Highlighting ecological and social problems, it moves along at a rollicking pace while still finding time for a surreal dream sequence when the hero is left to fend for himself in the sweltering outback. It’s gorgeous to look at and plays brilliantly as a horror thriller, be it of nature vs man or locals vs outsiders. It’s a low budget masterpiece that is ripe for rediscovery, and can definitely not be considered a bore.

RAZORBACK (1984) / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: RUSSELL MULCAHY / SCREENPLAY: EVERETT DE ROCHE / STARRING: GREGORY HARRISON, ARKIE WHITELY, BILL KERR, DAVID ARGUE, JUDY MORRIS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Most people who grew up in the 1970s – except for the ones who are funny-bone deficient – will have fond memories of The Goodies. The incredibly silly adventures of Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor – the eponymous trio who “only wanted to do good to people… Anything, anywhere, anytime” was almost mandatory family comedy viewing, and the gang kept the madness going for a full eight seasons on the BBC and a final hit-and-miss season on… erm… that other channel (so it wasn’t surprising the quality went down because, as any TV snob from that period will tell you, ITV could never do comedy as well as Auntie Beeb).

During their tenure The Goodies took on more lunatic assignments than it’s possible to count, from foiling a plot to steal the Crown Jewels by pilfering the beefeaters beef, to creating a sleep supplement campaign that threatened to send the whole nation to beddy-byes, to revealing the deadly Lancastrian martial art of Ecky-Thump, to skewering the Saturday Night Fever disco craze and discovering the diminutive secret of the giant who lives at the top of the beanstalk. And that’s not even scratching the surface of their infectious Goody-Goody-Yum-Yummness.

Their shows won awards too – mostly notably the Silver Rose of Montreux for a much-loved episode involving a giant kitten doing a Godzilla on the famous landmarks of London and (less understandably) for a goofball mugging of the British Film Industry called The Movies – and their novelty song “The Funky Gibbon” swung all the way up to No. 4 in the UK pop charts. But there was more to The Goodies than their madcapness. Like all great TV comedy, The Goodies played on one level for the kids and another for the grown-ups, and they weren’t afraid to slapstick their way through some controversial topics (a very early episode about police brutality doesn’t pull its truncheons) or avoid pie-facing the current news headlines (check out the episode Gender Education, when the boys really rip into the killjoy-we-all-loved-to-hate Mary Whitehouse) .

Considering the show was so successful, it’s strange that The Goodies have never enjoyed a revival on British TV. The occasional episode is played here and there, but if you sprouted up after the 70s were over you can be forgiven for wondering who they were and what all the fuss was about. So, in 90% of ways, it’s great that Network have released this complete collection of The Goodies BBC years which contains everything they did except the lost Kitten Kong episode (but don’t fret because the cut-down version that won at Montreux is included on this humongous set). The video and audio are very good too, although if you want some juicy extra supplements (which weren’t available for review) you’ll have to check out the prohibitively expensive A Binge of Goodies limited edition set that Network are peddling on their own site.

But what about the remaining 10% of ways? Well, speaking as a Goodies fan from way back when the show began, revisiting them was a bit of a mixed blessing. There’s at least one gem on each of the twelve discs, but the shows haven’t aged well. If you go into this set purely for smiles and a cuddly blast of nostalgia you won’t be disappointed, but if you’re expecting a return to the heydays when a Goodies episode actually caused a viewer to die laughing and sent another viewer into labour, you might wish you’d just held on to the memories.

THE GOODIES: THE COMPLETE BBC COLLECTION / DIRECTOR: VARIOUS / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: GRAEME GARDEN, BILL ODDIE, TIM BROOKE-TAYLOR / CERT: 12 / RELEASE DATE: 24TH SEPTEMBER 2018

James Lavelle thrust himself into the musical spotlight in the early ‘90s with his game-changing style that brought together a whole slew of musical genres and tropes. Aged just eighteen, Lavelle founded the Mo’Wax record label that provided a ridiculous amount of must-listen-to content, not to mention he’d found UNKLE with DJ Shadow. As ever, though, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Lavelle, UNKLE, or Mo’Wax, and this is what Matthew Jones’ The Man from Mo’Wax looks to document: the good times and the bad times of Lavelle’s roller coaster ride to date.

Many have often compared James Lavelle to artist Damien Hirst – a young game-changer who had a sense of cool, a sense of cocksureness, and who had so many others clamouring to work with them – and Lavelle’s story is one that hits many beats of your usual music industry tale. There’s huge success, there’s crushing lows, there’s big bucks, there’s penny-pinching, and there’s drugs and egos running wild.

The Man from Mo’Wax actually began life as some self-documented videos by Lavelle and his then-wife, only in more recent years being put together as a proper project by Jones. As a watch, it’s compelling stuff as you see Lavelle and his supporting players go through the gamut of emotions. This was a man who had the world at his fingertips but nearly pissed it all away thanks to some questionable decisions and fractured relationships. For Lavelle though, redemption was around the corner when he was asked to curate 2014’s Meltdown exhibition.

But while this makes for a satisfying story in a movie sense, the editing of The Man from Mo’Wax does at times feel like it’s on a very definitive path to serve as a three-act feature film. While the second act positions Lavelle as down and out, that’s not particularly the whole story; the documentary citing low physical sales of Lavelle’s albums at that point, despite the fact that the purchase of physical music had nosedived in general by then. But that’s the story that Matthew Jones has chosen to tell, and it does dovetail nicely towards the aforementioned Meltdown exhibit in which Lavelle vanquishes demons both personally and professionally.

The Man from Mo’Wax is certainly a fascinating watch and never anything but engaging – all accompanied by some stunning musical beats – but you’re left feeling that this is far from the full story of James Lavelle, and instead it’s maybe more put together to tell a cinematic narrative rather than be truly all-encompassing. Let’s face it, though, that’s not always a bad thing, and The Man from Mo’Wax is utterly compelling for the most part.

If the film itself is a brilliant viewing experience, the overall package of this limited-to-3000 box set – featuring Blu-ray and DVD versions of the documentary, a bonus disc of extra content, and all housed in a stunning book-cum-box – is a marvel to behold. Just from look and feel alone, this is a very special release and one that is a thing of beauty.

Special Features: Two audio commentaries / Four featurettes / Trailers / Collector’s booklet

THE MAN FROM MO’WAX / DIRECTOR: MATTHEW JONES / CERT: 15 / STARRING: JAMES LAVELLE, DJ SHADOW, JOSH HOMME, IAN BROWN, GRANDMASTER FLASH, THOM YORKE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

From the great classic pantheon of 1950s American monster movies which ran the gamut from various Blobs, Things, Creatures and giant-sized creepy crawlies such as the mutated ants in Them! or THE colossal crustaceans in Attack of the Crab Monsters, there are few which still have the capacity to terrify its audience more than 1955’s Tarantula, directed by Jack Arnold. Everyone – that’s everyone – hates spiders, of course, and here we have one of the eight-legged freaks grown to house-sized proportions rampaging across the monochrome Arizona desert laying waste to anything and everyone in its path. Eek, get it off me etc. Oh, and Clint Eastwood appears in an uncredited role as a fighter pilot in the film’s fiery climax.

Tarantula is no-nonsense, no-frills stuff. We open on a hideously-deformed man stumbling through the desert and collapsing. The deceased is scientist Eric Jacobs, an old friend of Dr Matt Hastings (Agar) who diagnoses acromegaly, a real-life disfiguring condition which takes years to develop but which Jacobs seemed to have contracted in days. Out in the desert, Jacobs’ colleague Dr Deemer (Carroll) is experimenting on a new growth drug which has unfortunate side effects. His lab is damaged in a fire and one of his test specimens – an already abnormally-large tarantula – escapes into the desert. Inevitably it starts to grow bigger and bigger and appears to resist all efforts to destroy it or halt its destructive, murderous rampage across the desert.

Tarantula is still a powerful and skin-crawling experience even now, over sixty years after it was made, mainly because unlike genre bedfellows such as Them!, the film doesn’t resort to unwieldy, unconvincing props, and uses a real spider and overlays it onto location footage. Scenes of the spider scuttling over desert highways and looming over hills and dunes are hugely effective – much of the film is set at night and the silhouette of the spider moving against the darkened horizon is still an eerie image – and the film even pays homage to King Kong as the tarantula crawls all over Deemer’s house and gazes through the window at Deemer’s unsuspecting assistant Stephanie “Steve” Clayton (Corday).

The film is punchy and to the point, and whilst it’s possible to read a Black Mirror-type “science is dangerous” subtext into the narrative it’s certainly not as heavy-handed and hectoring as the “beware radiation!” themes of many of its cinematic contemporaries. The film’s climax is a little throwaway though, with the tarantula nixed by napalm dropped by overflying fighter jets before fading to credits, but then again most of these 1950s creature features had the sense to get in and get the job done and then get out again.

A classic of its kind, Tarantula is pretty much guaranteed to get you looking behind the curtains and under the bed before you turn out the lights. They’re out there somewhere, millions of ‘em…

REVIEW: TARANTULA / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: JACK ARNOLD / SCREENPLAY: ROBERT M FRESCO, MARTIN BERKELEY / STARRING: LEO G. CARROLL, JOHN AGAR, MARA CORDAY / OUT NOW